is anyone else worried about the state of football at the moment? I feel this year particularly the game has become completely polarized. The 'top' 4 in england seem to have financial dominance, not only over there league rivals but also the other European power houses. But its not just the top 4 in PL thats detracting from the game, its the amount of money the lesser clubs can wield to lure young talents away from clubs which are now basically 'feeder' clubs or in some cases 'feeder' leagues (dutch, french) The italian league has lost of the plot completely, mass corruption, heavy hooligan element (not saying it doesnt exist in other places but its less evident) People not turning up to games. I think the spanish league is entertaining, good technical players on display but its usually only barca and real who make any impact on the CL. Also, the Champions league. Its a great competition and I love watching it but the level of competition is pretty atrocious. The group stage been a complete novelty. Teams getting beaten 7 and 8 nil. Its the same for the world cup and european championships qualifiers. Another fact of these matches is big nations playing against poor opposition, faroe islands, luxemburg etc. Its a massive strain on top level players. England face austria in a friendly on friday for some bizzare reason and you can be steve gerrard will probably play a full 90 minutes where on wednesday he will have to play another 90 in a massive high pressure game and then again on saturday. I think this playing routine will shorten the careers of players a great deal. Muscle and bone unable to cope with the strain of so many matches which range from poor opposition to high tempo matches with other big teams. what do you lot think?
There is a big difference in the length of players careers depending on what league they're playing in. Aldo once said that he felt his career went on for two more years because of the slower pace of Spanish football, where the players spend less time running, and let the ball do the work. As regards the state of the game, money in football, like in everything else, talks. If you have/spend it, you succeed, if you don't, you're an also ran.
Its been on the slide since the early '90s/sat. tv/premier league re-branding. Its become more of a buisness less of a sport, so with all the money there comes greed, corruption, cheating and of course the rich get richer, poor get poorer. I wouldnt say im worried bout it, just dissapointed. International football is brutal I think. Maybe its nostalgia but the last world cup I really enjoyed (irish sentiments aside of course) was '86. As for the future of football, I thought it was looking pretty bleak till I saw this: http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/football/teams/g/gravesend_and_northfleet/7089473.stm 20,000 fans paying £35 each to buy their club and they get to vote on player selection/transfers etc. Sounds like fun. Cant see it catching on in the big leagues though!
its not just the top 4 that are loaded any more though. Man City, Villa, Spurs, Newcastle all have alot of money at the minute. The premier league winners get a crap load of money this year because of the tv rights(not sure what the amount is(70mill)), so in theory, if you win it this year the money you get from the league will infact improve the teams squad for the next year. Thats what happened utd in the 90s they started winning at the right time. As for the lenght of careers, they roughly have 10 years or so, in which time they make a sh*t load of money.
Essentially, It happened in our own domestic league, what with rovers and the 400 club......It is nice to see
I think the Premierhip will follow a similar trend to Italian football in the 90s. Once the TV companies starting paying stupid money, the players became detached from supporters, number 1, they got their lifetime wage in a month and more and more of them were merceny foreigners would will kiss the badge of any club who will pay them top dollar. There was far too much football on TV and people stopped going to the games. Juventus are talking bout building a 30,000 stadium because the current one is 70,000 capactity and it never gets above 35000, even the big matches. My Dad is not a Liverpool fanatic, he enjoys football though in general. He says in the 80s and early 90s he would never miss Match of Day, because the only Live games were the FA CUp Final and some internationals. The quality of match of the day etc. was great because you only saw the 'highlights', the goals, the crunching tackles, the great Saves. Now though you can see almost every Liverpool, Man U, Chelsea game via TV. Setanta, Sky Sports, UTV etc..... and the true is that alot of the games are not very entertaining. Games are analysed to death and pundits have to be seen to be earning their money, even if there is very little to say. Sooner or later people are going to Vote with their feet, u see it already at Blackburn, Wigan, Bolton, Middlesboro, half empty stadiums. Why pay 35stg to watch something that is not value for money. At Liverpool and too some extent Manu and Chelsea Supporters still have a bond with the players, due to local talent being at the forefront of the team. Once Carragher and Gerrard, and the Scholes, Nevilles, Terry and Larmpard etc finish their career, those focal points will be gone and likely be replaced with the latest South American or African. The Liverpool team of today is probably the best squad they have had over the last 15 years, however give me a squad full of Redknapp, McManaman, McAteer, Fowler, Jones, Wright and even Babb over the current Metropolitan squad. When I went to Anfield to follow those guys, I could relate more to them that I do now, maybe its because I was young then.....